A full summer of soccer kicks off Friday in Santa Clara with Copa America Centenario. For the next three weeks, the United States will play host to one of the most prestigious soccer tournaments in the world as Copa America, the South American championship, moves outside of South America for the first time in its storied history.

Copa America is the oldest of the international continental soccer tournaments and this year’s version is a celebratory edition in honor of the competition’s 100th anniversary.

The United States hasn’t hosted a senior men’s soccer competition of this magnitude since the 1994 World Cup. With the game’s brightest stars, including Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Mexico’s Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and Columbia’s James Rodriguez, on U.S. soil, Copa America Centenario is a chance for the country to prove its mettle on and off the field.

Here’s what you need to know about Copa American Centenario:

The basics

• Who: 16 total teams: all 10 teams from the South American soccer confederation CONMEBOL and six from CONCACAF, the North American soccer confederation.

Group A: United States, Colombia, Costa Rica, Paraguay

Group B: Brazil, Ecuador, Haiti, Peru

Group C: Mexico, Uruguay, Jamaica, Venezuela

Group D: Argentina, Chile, Panama, Bolivia

• When: June 3 – June 26. The United States kicks off the tournament in Santa Clara’s Levi Stadium against Colombia at 6:30 p.m. The group stage ends June 14 with the top two teams from each group advancing to the quarterfinals.

How can I watch?

All 32 matches will be televised and streamed by FOX Sports. Matches will be spread throughout the FOX network (FOX, FS1, FX and FS2), with FS1 carrying the majority of the games (21). All games are also available on the FOX Sports GO and the FOX Soccer2Go apps.

Univision owns the Spanish rights and will air 18 matches on Univision and 14 on UniMas.

Are there any players with local ties in the tournament?

L.A. Galaxy forward and Hawthorne native Gyasi Zardes is playing for the United States, along with Irvine’s Bobby Wood, Orange’s Michael Orozco and Newport’s Steve Birnbaum.

Former Galaxy goalkeeper Jaime Penedo, who left the team last season due to a contract dispute is suiting up for Panama.

Rose Bowl matches:

• Saturday, June 4: Group B Brazil vs. Ecuador, 7 p.m.

The first matchup in the Rose Bowl is a meeting of the top teams in Group B. The inexperienced, Neymar-less Brazilian team is favored to win the group. While Neymar chose to represent his country in the Rio Olympics in August, other familiar names were left off the roster including David Luis, Thiago Silva and Marcelo. Brazil is trying to move past an embarrassing 7-1 loss in the semifinal of the 2014 World Cup on home soil and a quarterfinal loss in last year’s Copa America. Ecuador will likely advance out of the group as well, which would be its first appearance in the Copa America quarterfinal since 1997.

• Tuesday, June 7: Group A Colombia vs. Paraguay, 7:30 p.m.

Rodriguez leads Colombia, ranked No. 4 in the FIFA World Rankings, into Copa America. Rodriguez led the 2014 World Cup in scoring with six goals when he was just 22 years old, but fell out of favor with his club Real Madrid last season. Paraguay had a run of four-straight World Cup appearances snapped in 2014, but rebounded to make the Copa America semifinals last year.

• Thursday, June 9: Group C Mexico vs. Jamaica, 7 p.m.

El Tri figures to play a pseudo-home game June 9 in front of what will be a profoundly pro-Mexico crowd in the Rose Bowl. Hernandez is just two goals away from tying Mexico’s all-time scoring record currently held by Jared Borgetti. The game is a rematch of last summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup final where Mexico won the title. Jamaica was the Cinderella of the Gold Cup as it advanced to the final undefeated and took down the United States in the process.

Thuc Nhi Nguyen has covered UCLA for the Southern California News Group since 2016. A proud Seattle native, she majored in journalism and mathematics at the University of Washington. She likes graphs, animated GIFs and superheroes.